how to prepare for the exam

Dear Roel De Nijs,
I'd very appreciate if you can help me.
I have two questions regarding the certification:
1) can you eventally confirm that the certification is really appreciated during job interviews and selections?
2) I would like to ask for advice about the exam preparation: I did the enthuware exarcises but answering 45 questions at a time in about an hour and a half with a 72% score.
Then I tried to do the exam but I only got a 50% score.
where am I doing wrong?
Have I to train to do the whole exam questions in 150 minutes, or I have to reread and study the manuals in a better way?
Thank you for your help
Luca

This one apparently slipped through the net. Apologies for the fashionably late reply

First of all a warm welcome to the CodeRanch!

To answer your questions:
1/ Have a look here.
2/ With such little information it's hard to tell what went wrong and/or what you did wrong. Which study materials (books, online tutorials,...) did you use? A common mistake I often see (in my opinion), is: sometimes people are trying to get the certification as soon as possible. They want it sooner rather than later. And of course, getting certified is important but it's not the most important part of the journey. I'm convinced the most important part is taking your time and studying the materials thoroughly. This approach takes more time than just memorizing as much as you can (and hoping for the best), but you'll gain much more. You'll definitely will be a much better (java) programmer than before. This thread has a similar point of view.